Appetite vs Hunger

As I drove home in my sun-warmed car post acupuncture treatment, I realize that I may have a need to be clearer with my acupuncturist regarding my appetite as the sharp painful pressure in my ear and jaw slowly dissipated.  We all define words slightly different based on our personal perception and experience and typically not that far from the actual meaning of the word (s).  For me appetite has always meant my desire for certain foods with or without hunger; whereas, hunger was the desire to eat for nourishment or to replenish drained energy stores.  

According to Google; appetite (noun) is a natural desire to satisfy a bodily need, especially for food and hunger (noun) is a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat.  So when asked this morning how my appetite was during the past week, I said I hardly ever have an appetite; which is true.  I rarely desire certain foods over others, and I certainly have a preference for some foods more than others, but my perception of appetite clearly did not fit.  What I should have probably said was that typically I get very hungry just before lunch and only slightly hungry toward the end of the day.

Why the confusion between these two synonymous words?  Finding answers to this strange dilemma of mine is not easily done.  Google searches of course pull up millions of topics mostly on appetite control and even searching EBSCOhost (an academic paid search engine) pulls up scientific based research on appetite control and hunger satiety through various methods of food intake and meal portioning or timing. A glance through search results on the psychology of hunger appear to create a negative image of hunger, i.e. that when we hunger we lose control over our thought processes and ability to choose, as in choose healthy good-for-us things versus the alternative bad-for-us things.  A search on the psychology of appetite results in how behaviors affect eating habits and appetite control methods for the prevention of ill-health effects.

When did we place such negative meanings on these two so very natural words?  What happened to our hunger for life or our appetite for adventure?  Clearly I am not the only one at a loss in how to interpret these words in a practical manner, let alone in a medical-like setting where an incorrect interpretation means the difference between a painful pressure in my ear and the reduction of stress –which was my intention.

“Appetite has really become an artificial and abnormal thing, having taken the place of true hunger, which alone is natural. The one is a sign of bondage but the other, of freedom.” 

~ Paul Brunton, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton

“Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what's next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.”

~Samuel Ullman

“Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.” 

~ Bertolt Brecht

“If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”

~Les Brown

Stay Happy! Stay Healthy!